THE NEWS (PART 2)

"So what brings you here?" Jade asked Alec.

They were sitting together on the little terrace attached to her apartment.

She was a little more composed.

She could see the bruise on his nose which had now become a blue colour.

"I wanted to meet you." Alec stalled.

He didn't know how to start the topic. He didn't even know what he wanted to say to her.

"We are meeting in the evening anyways."

"About that what time exactly are we meeting?" Alec knew his question was stupid and had no relevance to what he actually wanted to talk about but he couldn't help it.

Jade gave him a quizzical look, "I'm not sure... 7:30 I guess. Matt's picking me up at 7." She shrugged.

Alec's ears pricked at Matt's name, "Matt?"

"Yeah... I invited him as my date. I didn't want to come alone."

"But I thought you'll broke up?" A million thoughts were going around in his head while Jade sat there nonchalantly.

"We did break up,but that doesn't mean we're not friends. He's a close friend of mine and he agreed to come."

Alec thought that he saw a dreamy look in her eyes.

"Why did you'll break up?" He asked.

Jade snapped out of her thoughts, "He wanted different things from life and I wanted different things. But we had a great relationship. You know he's such a great guy. We were really happy when we were together...."

Before Jade could complete whatever she was saying Alec blurted out, "Emma wants to get married!"

"What?" She just stared at him with a bewildered look on her face.

"After you left yesterday she told me to ask her to get married."

Alec didn't even know why he was telling Jade all this. He was supposed to break the news to her more calmly and maybe after some time.

"And what did you say?" Jade said at once.

"I said I needed time to think."

"You had time. Almost one whole day. What did you think?"

She could feel her heart sink. This was not how this was supposed to go. She had been trying to make him a little jealous by talking about her relationship with Matt.

The plan had backfired horrifically.

"I don't know, Jade." He rubbed his face, "I really don't know!"

"Do you want to get married to Emma, or no? How difficult is this question?"

"It's a big decision. I don't want to end up getting a divorce. What do you think I should do?"

Jade looked up at Alec. Her best friend looked like he was on the verge of going mad.

"You know what I think of marriage. And yeah... Marriage is the reason for 100% of divorces."

Was this the time to make jokes?, thought Alec.

"That's bullshit, Jade!" He said.

"No it's not. If you don't get married you won't get divorced as simple as that!" Jade shrugged nonchalantly, though she could feel the tears pricking her eyes.

"Why are you so against marriage?"

"I'm not against marriage! I just think it's not for every one." She got up and walked to the railing of the terrace.

"Yeah right! You hate the word marriage... And I guess I know why."

She turned around and looked Alec in his eyes with a daring look.

"And may I know what's the reason?" She snapped.

"What happened with your parents does not happen to everyone." Alec said as an explanation.

"I can't believe you just said that!" Jade gasped.

This had nothing to do with her parents and everything to do with her feeling for Alec.

"It's true."

"No it's not! And I want you to leave right now!" She yelled.

"Jade..."

"I don't care what you think of me. You're not some psychologist. You can't say stuff like that out of nowhere and get away with it."

"I didn't mean it that way. It came out the wrong way. I'm stressed." Alec stood up next to her.

"And you think I'm not. Go get married! Go live happily. I don't want to know. Just get out of my house right now!" Her voice had gone up to dangerous level.

"Let me explain."

"Now! Get out of my house!" She went into the house and pulled the door wide open for him to leave. "I've had enough of your explanations. Go get married to the woman who you're so scared of that you have to lie to, to meet your friends."

She could feel the anger and tears bubble up and wanted Alec to be far away from her when she burst.

"Listen to me..."

Jade interrupted Alec, "No you listen to me.... I don't care whether you marry that.... That arrogant, stupid and rude girl. I don't care if you spoil your whole life. I don't care." Her voice broke, "I just need you to leave right now."

Alec's shoulders slumped as he walked out of the apartment. He turned around to say something to Jade, but she had already slammed the door shut.

Inside Jade stood with her back pressed against the door which she had just shut.

Atlast she let the tears, she had been controlling, go.

After years she let herself really cry.

It was like her heart was breaking into a million pieces. And though she had always known that Alec could never be hers, she had hoped for it.

And now...

She fell to pieces and curled up on the floor where she had been standing.

.................

The mobile in his pocket rang as he took the first sip of the drink the bar tender had placed in front of him.

Alec took it out of his pocket and saw that the call was from Julia.

"Hey Al, we're 15 minutes away from home. I hope you're back." His sisters voice came on as soon as he picked up the call.

"No I'm not."

Alec realised he was slurring a little. He had come directly to the bar after being kicked out of Jade's house. He was already on his third whiskey .

"What!? Go home right now, Alec!" Julia screamed.

"Give your phone to Emma." Alec said ignoring Julia's yells.

"Why do you want to talk to Emma? She's gone to buy Mom a bottle of water. Alec are you drunk?" To say Julia sounded surprised would have been an underestimation.

"I need to talk to Emma. Just give her the phone."

"I don't know what you're up to. I really...." Alec heard the car door slam close. There was a pause for sometime.

"Alec?" Alec heard Emma say.

"Hi Emma! You had fun?" Alec asked gulping the remnants of his third whiskey before signalling for another.

"Yes. Is something wrong?" She sounded cautious.

Alec took a sip from his new whiskey before replying, "No. Nothing's wrong. But I won't be home when you'll come back. I have a little shopping to do."

"Shopping?"

"Yeah.... I thought about what you said yesterday. And...."

He was interrupted by Emma who sounded very excited, "Oh really? Sure! Take your time!"

"Thanks! I'll talk to you later, okay?"

Emma kept the phone immediately.

Alec knew his plan had worked. She would not be upset if he was not at home.

But the thing was he had not been lying. As soon as Emma kept the phone he called up Jason.

If he was really going ring shopping he needed all the support he could get.

Jason and Steve were confused when Alec told them to meet him at the bar in Main Street but they agreed.

Alec had decided to go buy the ring and propose to Emma as he was leaving Jade's house.

It was pretty clear that she harboured no feelings for him. She was desperately in love with that doctor!

And by her last words it was pretty clear she didn't care what he did with his life, so he might as well make Emma happy.

He was buying a ring. He was going to propose to Emma.

But first he needed liquid courage. He gulped his whole whiskey in one shot.

....................

She was going to be cheerful. She was going to smile and have fun.

Jade looked into her eyes in the mirror and swore to herself. She was going to smile and laugh the whole evening, even if it killed her to see Alec. That too, with Emma next to him.

She was not going to let him see that what happened in the morning had affected her in any way at all.

She was going to enjoy herself.

She picked up the glass of red wine she had placed next to her table and took a big sip.

She eyed herself in the mirror. She had taken time in getting ready very carefully.

She was wearing a dark red colour dress, which left her hand bare and fell till her knees. The dress was tight at the waist so it looked slim and then flowed out.

Her hair sat at the nape of her neck in small knot and she had forced her feet into sky high silver heels.

Her make up was perfect and she was going to try her best to make the evening just as perfect.

If the smile on her face faltered a little it would go unnoticed.

She gulped the rest of the wine.

The door bell rang.

...................

Matt stood outside the door to Jade's house at sharp 7 just like he had told her.

He was dressed in a black button down shirt and black pants.

The door was pulled open and Jade stood with a huge smile on her face.

"Hi Matt! Come in!"

Matt followed Jade inside, "Hey Jade! You look beautiful."

And she really did. The red dress made her skin glow.

Since her hair was pulled back her neck was left bare. She looked beautiful and charming.

"You don't look bad either. Let's have a glass of wine before leaving."

Jade went into the kitchen. Before Matt could protest she poured the wine from the bottle into a glass and held it out to him.

"Jade, I'll be driving. So I don't think I should be drinking." He said.

"Oh! Since I've already poured it!" She held the glass to her own lips and gulped the whole wine in one sip, while Matt stared at her with wide eyes.

After dating Jade for a long time, Matt knew that Jade was a light weight.

She acted like she could handle her drink but always ended up getting drunk.

"Slowly!" He said in reflex.

Jade just laughed as she kept the glass on the table.

"Chill out, Matt! It's party time!"

She was smiling and laughing even all the while as they left and drove to the club where they all had agreed to meet.

She became a little quiet as they were about to reach the club but very cleverly covered it up by starting a new conversation the next minute.

It was almost like she was putting up an act. But for who.....

Matt kept wondering why she had to put up an act for anyone they were meeting today.

He was not going to let such thoughts come into his head. Today was the day he was going to convince her that they were good together.

And he would accomplish his task no matter what!

....................